The Obama Administration has been accused by public interest groups of being one of the most hostile administration toward whistleblowers since the Nixon Administration. Not only whistleblowers but reporters have been subject to abusive investigations and crackdowns under President Obama. Now, that record has taken an even more dangerous turn. The Justice Department is facing bipartisan criticism after it moved to restrict access of inspectors general to documents needed to ferret out corrupt and abusive practices. The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has issued a controversial 68-page memo that says that the department’s inspector general would be required to get permission from the agencies it is investigating to obtain wire taps, grand jury testimonies, and credit information.
For the record, I have been a long critic of the OLC due to what I have viewed as a significant decline in both the neutrality and quality of work in that office. The office has been wrong on a number of important constitutional questions, including the unconstitutional use of recess appointments by the President. In my view, these opinions were a departure from the tradition of the OLC in offering detached and apolitical analysis.
DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz has correctly noted that federal law gives his office independent authority and that having to coordinate documents requests from the very agency under investigation is counterintuitive: “I strongly disagree with the OLC opinion. Congress meant what it said when it authorized Inspectors General to independently access ‘all’ documents necessary to conduct effective oversight. … Without such access, our office’s ability to conduct its work will be significantly impaired.”
He is joined in this view by key members of Congress from both parties, including Senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., as well as Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and John Conyers, D-Mich. As Senator Grassley correctly noted “If the Inspector General deems a document necessary to do his job, then the agency should turn it over immediately.”
The requirement that IGs get permission and access from the subject agency is inimical to the very function of their office and the effectiveness of these offices. When combined with the controversial measures taken against whistleblowers by the Obama Administration, the new policy would allow an Administration far greater power in controlling investigations of its authority and would guarantee notice of potential controversies or scandals within its ranks.
ninianpeckitt, well said. And thank you.
Ninny,
“Audrey Hepburn said: “I don’t believe in collective guilt, but I do believe in collective responsibility”.
You need to start looking at life in a more positive way and then you might not feel so bitter.”
This is the crux. You have finally, inadvertently stumbled into the essence of the matter.
America is NOT the dictatorship of Audrey Hepburn – or anyone else. America is free individuals.
No matter how corrupt Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Obama and the Supreme Court have been for more 150 years, Americans are free individuals and the collective, with emphasis on central planning and redistribution of wealth, have NO weight or force. Americans have felt the force of dictatorship since Lincoln’s “Reign of Terror.” Lincoln nullified and voided the Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Americans may be currently subjugated under a dictatorship but the founding documents provide freedom of the individual and reject the collective. And they always will. America was given a restricted-vote republic. It couldn’t keep it. It remains to be seen if it can take it back.
I AM A FREE AMERICAN. I DON’T NEEEEED TO DO ANYTHING. NO AMERICAN NEEEEDS TO DO ANYTHING BUT TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF. I DON’T NEED TO WORK HARD AND HAVE MY WAGES CONFISCATED AND GIVEN TO ANOTHER MAN WHO CHOOSES NOT TO WORK AND TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF.
BUSINESSMEN ENGAGING IN FREE ENTERPRISE DO NOT HAVE TO ENTERTAIN UNPREAMBULAR AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENTAL MANDATE AND REGULATION.
IN AMERICA, THE INDIVIDUAL IS FREE, THE PEOPLE ARE THE SOVEREIGN AND THE GOVERNMENT IS THE SUBJECT.
THE KING IN THE BRITISH MONARCHY USED TO DICTATE.
DICTATORSHIP IS NOT ALLOWED UNDER THE AMERICAN FOUNDING DOCUMENTS.
ALL MEN, THEORETICALLY, IT WAS SAID GENEROUSLY AND COMPASSIONATELY, ARE CREATED EQUAL.
AFTER CREATION, THE OUTCOMES OF THIER LIVES DEPEND ON THEIR OWN, INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND EFFORT.
Audrey Hepburn, Karl Marx et al. have NOTHING to do with the Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights. These collectivists, and their ilk, DO NOT dictate. Long ago, Americans threw off the yoke of dictatorship in any and all forms, from monarchy to collectivism.
The American Thesis is Freedom and Self-Reliance.
We’re ALL free and we ALL take care of ourselves.
There is NO:
Social Engineering
Central Planning
Control of the Means of Production
Redistribution of Wealth
There is:
Freedom
Free Enterprise
Private Property
Self-Reliance
Government shall tax to fund operations as limited by the Preamble:
Justice, Tranquility, Common Defence, Promote General Welfare
Government cannot take private property from one man to give private property to another.
Americans have the right to private property – possession and disposition.
PEOPLE HAVE THE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES.
America is not a theocracy. Separation of Church and State is the American policy.
Charity is honorable.
You need to open a private charity in the free market. You will do well.
Leave the rest of us, Americans, to “pursue happiness” on our own, in our own freedom.
FGWI:
But you aren’t free not in any sense of the word. You have been duped in to believing this. I think your inability to see this goes way back to how you were indoctrinated as children.
I have explained the thinking behind this on great detail and when you read it you need to think. If you can do this you will begin to understand how you have been manipulated.
Maybe it takes the perspective of a foreigner to understand this – but no one outside America really believes this nonsense about America being built on the foundations of freedom.
And this infuriates you because it could have been so different.
I have posted loads of examples from slavery through the Indian Wars Grabbing of Land, Conquest of Land, selective amnesia, pseudo-psychotic political platform, psychologically disturbed judgments, assassination and attempted assassination of your presidents and deception, through to the CIA.
FWIA and colleagues. You all need to grow up and start living in the Real World. Not the world of Hollywood and John Wayne and Paul C. Schulte who cannot argue his way through a pointed white paper bag.
Go and strive for this Dream…
Yes ! Absolutely !
But realuse that that is what it is. A Dream. Don’t be silly to think you have got there. Because that will never be permitted. Realise that Real Power in America is held by the unelected. Stop regurgitating things you have been taught and start thinking for yourselves.
America is no different to any other country run by corrupt politicians.
ninny – when are you going to take my civics test. No guts, no glory.